Making Change

History can happen any old time.

Four days ago, my minister announced from the pulpit that he would no longer perform legal marriages for straight couples until gay marriage is legal. He is one of the first ministers (or perhaps the very first) to take this stand. The event was not only on the front cover of our local paper, but also in USA Today, and has made news around the world. Though it was probably a difficult moment for some, I was more than proud to be there.

Almost exactly 42 1/2 years ago, Rev. Walter L. Moore welcomed Sam Oni, from Ghana, to the membership of his church. Vineville was the first Georgia Baptist church to integrate, as was reported the next day in The Macon News, The Atlanta Constitution, The New York Times, and as far away as the Mankato Free Press in Mankato, Minn. Though the deacons were unanimously behind their pastor and the congregational vote to accept Oni's membership was a strong majority, some members were incensed. A few even left the church over it. But others, staunch segregationists, stayed with the church. I find myself believing that, in staying, these segregationists must have begun to gradually open to another way of seeing the world.

My dad was also a minister in the 60's, and like my Granddaddy, cared deeply about civil rights. He was installed as minister of a Congregationalist church in Birmingham, AL on September 15, 1963, one week before Sam Oni joined Vineville, and the very same Sunday that the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed. Four precious little lives lost. I wasn't born yet; my sisters were 10, 8, and 4 years old (here are the older ones, in their Sunday best).

Later on, Dad proposed to his church that they integrate. In an environment of civil rights-related violence and death, the church wasn't ready. Embittered and angry, Dad left the Congregationalists and Birmingham, and turned his back on organized religion all together. That was it.

Dad continued his civil rights work after that time, but mostly from the outside: taking groups of black kids to all-white campgrounds, or black friends to white churches. As far as I know, none of those actions led to progressive change. He spent years railing against the church and anybody with power inside its walls, especially my granddaddy. In his mind, anybody still within the church was guilty by association.

But who changed minds, opened hearts?